Build the Post-Krakoan Era

[Agent Grayson]

Inspired partly by the thread about the next roster of X-Men and the announcement of Fall of X, I thought it would be fun for posters to take a shot at re-envisioning the X-Men line once the Krakoan status quo is gone. What books would you include and what would be their premises? Which characters would you spotlight? The only rule is that we assume that Krakoa, the island and civilisation, is no more. Everything else (including Mars/Arakko) is left up to you. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!

The Krakoan status quo was a seismic shift and I don't think it's something that could or should be ignored once gone. I want a line of books that tidies up the messes left by Krakoa, draws on what was best about it, but also looks forward to a new era. Mine would consist of:

Uncanny X-Men

Team Roster: Cyclops (co-leader), Jean Grey (co-leader), Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Wolverine (Logan), Synch

Hoping to restore trust and return the X-Men firmly to the path of following Xavier's dream, Cyclops and Jean assemble a team of experienced X-Men to act as superheroes in defence of both human and mutant interests. Shadowcat and Nightcrawler are glad to get back to basics, having seen the corruption in the Quiet Council that eroded their belief in Krakoa. Wolverine is happy to follow Cyclops and Jean's leadership but acts as the team's 'edge' when needed. Synch has earned his place on the flagship team and continues to develop as a key member. Part of their mission includes re-establishing ties with human allies such as Stevie Hunter, now a prominent pro-mutant politician, and the superhuman community as a whole.

X-Men Infinity

Team Roster: Storm (leader), Bishop, Sunspot, Cannonball, Smasher, Havok, Polaris

Krakoa is gone, but Storm believes that her role as Regent of Sol still serves a purpose. She sees the need for an expansion of Xavier's dream - coexistence not just with humans, but with alien races as well. Embarking on an intergalactic peace tour, she recruits Bishop as a trusted lieutenant, while Sunspot brings Cannonball and Smasher into the fold. Havok feels lost on Earth and sees the team as a chance to find himself and his role amongst mutantkind. Polaris is selected by Storm due to her experience in Shi'ar space and accepts because she wants to honour her father's sacrifice.

X-Men

Team Roster: Hope Summers (leader), Wind Dancer, Hellion, Surge, Dust, Wolverine (Laura), Elixir

The younger generation of X-Men have seen the older generation fight, squabble and corrupt their way to failure on multiple occasions. Now, they're ready to take the reins. Hope recruits a band of Academy X students to form their own version of the X-Men, one with the same mission statement as Cyclops and Jean's team but with a more proactive approach and some aversion to the ways of the experienced heroes they believe have made too many mistakes to be relied upon. This would essentially be a new version of the original X-Force, with Hope assuming Cable's role and the Academy X kids filling in for the New Mutants.

X-Force

Team Roster: Professor X (leader), Forge, Emma Frost, Magik, Colossus, Cable, Revanche

Krakoa gave amnesty to a whole host of villains who are now off the leash. Xavier saw his Krakoan dream fail and he doesn't want the world to have to pay the price. He recruits valued allies to help him hunt down and detain those who return to their villainous ways: Colossus, who is enraged by the way he was manipulated by his brother; Magik, who is looking out for her brother and sees this new mission as an extension of her duty as a former War Captain; and Forge, who continues to act as a close ally and confidante of Xavier. Xavier has promised that there will be no more secrets, but Emma and Cable bring themselves on board to make sure that is the case and to keep him in line if necessary. To that end, Emma enlists Revanche as her own secret ally within the squad.

Exiles

Team Roster: Mystique, Destiny, Rogue, Gambit

Mystique and Destiny were burned by Krakoa but are driven by Destiny's visions to take action to protect mutantkind. The world at large still sees them as villains, and sometimes they are - but that's why Rogue and Gambit have tagged along with them, making sure that they don't cross any moral lines while navigating a strange pseudo-family dynamic.

S.T.R.I.K.E.

Team Roster: Captain Britain (Brian; leader), Psylocke (Betsy), Pete Wisdom, Wolfsbane, Mirage, Banshee

Having reclaimed the mantle of Captain Britain, Brian is recruited to lead the superhuman division of the revived S.T.R.I.K.E., with Pete Wisdom as a founding member. Banshee and Wolfsbane sign up to be part of his team, with Mirage following her best friend across the pond. Betsy assumes leadership of the organisation's Psi Division and acts as a mentor and Nick Fury-esque figure to a number of psi-sensitive agents. They are embroiled in gritty spy dramas that take a number of the team out of their comfort zone.

[Jackraow21]

Not bad. I can dig it. Well done.

[Frobisher]

Kind of depressing to even think of them going back to being a victim minority in Human countries again, with the X-Men rolling in their back and performing tricks for the grace of mere tolerance.

[Agent Grayson]

Not bad. I can dig it. Well done.

Thank you! Where would you like to see Cable go after Krakoa?

Kind of depressing to even think of them going back to being a victim minority in Human countries again, with the X-Men rolling in their back and performing tricks for the grace of mere tolerance.

While I strongly disagree that the X-Men have ever done this, I was hoping this thread would be about positive creativity and ideas rather than debates about Krakoa.

[Jackraow21]

Thank you! Where would you like to see Cable go after Krakoa?

Honestly, I’m not 100% sure. Part of me wants him back leading X-Force with an awesome cast and creative team, but part of me feels like it’s a step backwards as he’s also kind of thrived when he’s been more of an X-men character too. Like back in the late 90s, for example. And I’m really liking him in X-men Red with Storm, Sunspot, Thunderbird, etc.

So I’m a bit torn on this question. I just want him somewhere in a meaningful role basically. Preferably one where he’s interacting with other parts of the Marvel Universe too, beyond just the X-books. That would be cool. Used to love when he did that back in his solo book in the 90s (from the Avengers, to Black Panther/Wakanda, to the Hulk, to Captain America or Ghost Rider) as well as during the Cable & Deadpool book (especially loved the issues where he and Wade fought and then teamed up with Luke Cage and Iron Fist).

[crimsontt]

Krakoa would be killed and the then inert island would become New Genosha, rebuilt by Emma and her new X-Factor (Polaris,Havok, Rachel, Magic, Multiple Man, Monet, Shard and a few others.
The X-men would be back in the mansion, once again split into 2 teams. blue: Magneto, Storm, Psylocke, Wolverine, Kwannon, Rogue and Nightcrawler, and Gold: the O5 plus Kitty, Gambit and Bishop, with Xavier being more frequently penned in the Gold book.

Xavier would have created a new cerebro with the capacity of allowing up to 3 telepaths to amplify their powers in unison. With that, charles, betsy and jean would perform a weekly routine of mind manipulations across the globe, mentally suggesting world wide leaders to adept to a mutant rights agenda so mutants could finally have peace. The attack on Krakoa led no other choice to Xavier, considering not even isolation have ended mutant persecution.

Betsy, once again in charge of security would have Domino to reform X-Force as the X-Men intelligence agency.

First story would have all 4 teams coping with Shadow King sabotaging Xavier’s plan and wanting to merge his conscience with Moira to piggyback on her resurrection to rewrite all story from the past.

The villain would fail, but a new limited what if series would spun out of this: x-men: the age of the shadow king

[Mungho]

I'd really like the X-Men to stop being victims and hated all the time, but that will probably never happen.

And anyway, no Beast in any of your teams?

[Subliminally]

X-Men: Moving On from this tired a$$ cycle.

Mutantkind decides to be done with Earth and realizing that even with the downfall of Krakoa, they are still capable of traveling to other planets which would allow them to make Planet X where mutants can live in peace and every Earth born mutant is granted automatic citizenship.

From there they can do w/e they want. Soar among the stars or start a cute lil farm. Save entire civilizations or start a fight club.

Any mutant whos power is innately tied to specifically Earth, will have the option to undergo genetic augmentation upon resurrection OR have telepathic surgery to "evolve" beyond that particular quirk.

[BobbysWorld]

Thank you! Where would you like to see Cable go after Krakoa?



While I strongly disagree that the X-Men have ever done this, I was hoping this thread would be about positive creativity and ideas rather than debates about Krakoa.

Respectfully, you're asking people to limit themselves to positive creativity and ideas that are predicated on an indictment of Krakoa and an expectation of its unilateral demise, rather than allowing people to present or explore ideas about a post-Fall of X future that changes Krakoa in key ways and addresses various flaws of it WITHOUT burning the whole thing to the ground.

And the presumption that there's no ways in which a status quo shift could BUILD on Krakoa and EVOLVE it into something better, and there's nothing salvageable about the concept and it should be done away with....is an inherently negative start point for a lot of posters.

None of us know for sure where Fall of X will take the X-books yet, and none of us have any control or influence over that, but rather than try and foster positive expectations or hopes ONLY for the posters who are ready to move on from Krakoa and are happy to take its destruction/dissolution as a given or use it as a start point.....I do genuinely think you'd have a better shot at a positive sharing of creativity and ideas if you opened up this thread to being just an imagining of peoples' different ideas for a post-Fall of X era. Whether that assumes the end of Krakoa or whether it just assumes a shifting of Krakoa and opening new avenues to telling stories that people have wanted from the Krakoan concept but still never seen.

That way its literally just an invitation for people to share their ideas on what the future of the X-books COULD be, not simply a validation of ONE specific direction they could take, on either side of the 'Krakoa=good/Krakoa=bad' divide.

Obviously someone could just start a different thread duplicating this same idea and asking people to limit themselves only to positive ideas about a post-Fall of X Era that still keeps and builds on the Krakoan concept, but tbh that's likely to just come off as a little petty and just further perpetuate the two different sides of the Great Krakoan Debate as irreconcilable and not possibly ever being of any interest to the other side.

When instead, I'm just putting forth the idea that if this thread were about anyone's ideas for what a new post-Fall of X status quo could look like or launch from, and what the X-books could look like.....with no restrictions around the status of the Krakoan concept, either for it or against it.....maybe if the request of posters then is just that people stick to the 'yes, and' approach instead of the 'no, because' approach....wherein people are asked or encouraged to just focus on the posts or ideas that inspire them in turn, or else stick to adding their own ideas to the thread, rather than try and refute any specific vision of what the X-books could be.....that might be more effective in fostering positive creativity and ideas rather than debates?

Because as is, launching from the predication that the only new status quo people are encouraged to imagine is one where Krakoa is just gone, with 'positive ideas only' tacked onto the thread, that carries an implicit assumption 'and this is a good thing for the books' - and thus the 'please no debates about Krakoa' qualifier doesn't actually do anything to CIRCUMVENT differences of opinions about Krakoa. It simply suggests "this thread assumes the debate has been won, and Krakoa should be gone, this is the best thing for the X-books, build on that and that only, and nothing that contests it or suggests a third possibility to Krakoa=good/Krakoa=bad, ie....Krakoa=flawed in the way all countries are flawed and nobody's out here suggesting every human country in the Marvel U be burned to the ground, food for thought."

Anyway, if that's truly what you want for this thread, it can be that, obviously. I'm just putting this out there to consider. I mean, I'm just saying, I know I'd find it a lot easier to be receptive to the ideas you outlined in your opening post if they were presented in that vein - simply one vision of the X-books' future - rather than innately an indictment of all ideas that are born from the opposite side of the 'should Krakoa continue to exist in any form' debate that is still going to be present in peoples' minds when reading this thread, whether or not people are encouraged to voice ideas born of a difference of opinion there.

[Agent Grayson]

Honestly, IÂ’m not 100% sure. Part of me wants him back leading X-Force with an awesome cast and creative team, but part of me feels like itÂ’s a step backwards as heÂ’s also kind of thrived when heÂ’s been more of an X-men character too. Like back in the late 90s, for example. And IÂ’m really liking him in X-men Red with Storm, Sunspot, Thunderbird, etc.

So IÂ’m a bit torn on this question. I just want him somewhere in a meaningful role basically. Preferably one where heÂ’s interacting with other parts of the Marvel Universe too, beyond just the X-books. That would be cool. Used to love when he did that back in his solo book in the 90s (from the Avengers, to Black Panther/Wakanda, to the Hulk, to Captain America or Ghost Rider) as well as during the Cable & Deadpool book (especially loved the issues where he and Wade fought and then teamed up with Luke Cage and Iron Fist).

I've never read much of Cable interacting with the wider Marvel Universe. I'd especially like to see a team-up with Black Panther. Has this happened before? And is the old Cable/Deadpool book worth reading?

Krakoa would be killed and the then inert island would become New Genosha, rebuilt by Emma and her new X-Factor (Polaris,Havok, Rachel, Magic, Multiple Man, Monet, Shard and a few others.
The X-men would be back in the mansion, once again split into 2 teams. blue: Magneto, Storm, Psylocke, Wolverine, Kwannon, Rogue and Nightcrawler, and Gold: the O5 plus Kitty, Gambit and Bishop, with Xavier being more frequently penned in the Gold book.

Xavier would have created a new cerebro with the capacity of allowing up to 3 telepaths to amplify their powers in unison. With that, charles, betsy and jean would perform a weekly routine of mind manipulations across the globe, mentally suggesting world wide leaders to adept to a mutant rights agenda so mutants could finally have peace. The attack on Krakoa led no other choice to Xavier, considering not even isolation have ended mutant persecution.

Betsy, once again in charge of security would have Domino to reform X-Force as the X-Men intelligence agency.

First story would have all 4 teams coping with Shadow King sabotaging XavierÂ’s plan and wanting to merge his conscience with Moira to piggyback on her resurrection to rewrite all story from the past.

The villain would fail, but a new limited what if series would spun out of this: x-men: the age of the shadow king

I love the line-ups you've listed here, especially the Blue Team. I can't see Jean and Betsy agreeing to such psychic manipulation though. I'd like to think Xavier wouldn't but it depends on who's writing him.

I'd really like the X-Men to stop being victims and hated all the time, but that will probably never happen.

And anyway, no Beast in any of your teams?

I thought about including Beast because I'd love to see him get a full redemption arc, but personally, I think the character needs a bit of a rest (or a reset of some kind) before that can happen.

Respectfully, you're asking people to limit themselves to positive creativity and ideas that are predicated on an indictment of Krakoa and an expectation of its unilateral demise, rather than allowing people to present or explore ideas about a post-Fall of X future that changes Krakoa in key ways and addresses various flaws of it WITHOUT burning the whole thing to the ground.

And the presumption that there's no ways in which a status quo shift could BUILD on Krakoa and EVOLVE it into something better, and there's nothing salvageable about the concept and it should be done away with....is an inherently negative start point for a lot of posters.

None of us know for sure where Fall of X will take the X-books yet, and none of us have any control or influence over that, but rather than try and foster positive expectations or hopes ONLY for the posters who are ready to move on from Krakoa and are happy to take its destruction/dissolution as a given or use it as a start point.....I do genuinely think you'd have a better shot at a positive sharing of creativity and ideas if you opened up this thread to being just an imagining of peoples' different ideas for a post-Fall of X era. Whether that assumes the end of Krakoa or whether it just assumes a shifting of Krakoa and opening new avenues to telling stories that people have wanted from the Krakoan concept but still never seen.

That way its literally just an invitation for people to share their ideas on what the future of the X-books COULD be, not simply a validation of ONE specific direction they could take, on either side of the 'Krakoa=good/Krakoa=bad' divide.

Obviously someone could just start a different thread duplicating this same idea and asking people to limit themselves only to positive ideas about a post-Fall of X Era that still keeps and builds on the Krakoan concept, but tbh that's likely to just come off as a little petty and just further perpetuate the two different sides of the Great Krakoan Debate as irreconcilable and not possibly ever being of any interest to the other side.

When instead, I'm just putting forth the idea that if this thread were about anyone's ideas for what a new post-Fall of X status quo could look like or launch from, and what the X-books could look like.....with no restrictions around the status of the Krakoan concept, either for it or against it.....maybe if the request of posters then is just that people stick to the 'yes, and' approach instead of the 'no, because' approach....wherein people are asked or encouraged to just focus on the posts or ideas that inspire them in turn, or else stick to adding their own ideas to the thread, rather than try and refute any specific vision of what the X-books could be.....that might be more effective in fostering positive creativity and ideas rather than debates?

Because as is, launching from the predication that the only new status quo people are encouraged to imagine is one where Krakoa is just gone, with 'positive ideas only' tacked onto the thread, that carries an implicit assumption 'and this is a good thing for the books' - and thus the 'please no debates about Krakoa' qualifier doesn't actually do anything to CIRCUMVENT differences of opinions about Krakoa. It simply suggests "this thread assumes the debate has been won, and Krakoa should be gone, this is the best thing for the X-books, build on that and that only, and nothing that contests it or suggests a third possibility to Krakoa=good/Krakoa=bad, ie....Krakoa=flawed in the way all countries are flawed and nobody's out here suggesting every human country in the Marvel U be burned to the ground, food for thought."

Anyway, if that's truly what you want for this thread, it can be that, obviously. I'm just putting this out there to consider. I mean, I'm just saying, I know I'd find it a lot easier to be receptive to the ideas you outlined in your opening post and considering them in just that vein - simply one vision of the X-books' future - rather than innately an indictment of all ideas that are born from the opposite side of the 'should Krakoa continue to exist in any form' debate that is still going to be present in peoples' minds when reading this thread, whether or not people are encouraged to voice ideas born of a difference of opinion there.

The point of this thread, as per the title, was to look at the post-Krakoan era. It's hard to do that if Krakoa still exists because the status quo would still be the same and there wouldn't be a significant shift to explore with new ideas. It was never intended to spark any kind of debate about who likes Krakoa and who doesn't because frankly, I've seen that done to death in other threads and I don't think anyone will change their opinion either way. However, I'm not the post police. If people want to come up with their own ideas based around Krakoa still being around, they can feel free to.

[JB]

X-Men: Moving On from this tired a$$ cycle.

Mutantkind decides to be done with Earth and realizing that even with the downfall of Krakoa, they are still capable of traveling to other planets which would allow them to make Planet X where mutants can live in peace and every Earth born mutant is granted automatic citizenship.

From there they can do w/e they want. Soar among the stars or start a cute lil farm. Save entire civilizations or start a fight club.

Any mutant whos power is innately tied to specifically Earth, will have the option to undergo genetic augmentation upon resurrection OR have telepathic surgery to "evolve" beyond that particular quirk.

In the event that Krakoa would cease to exist as the OP put forth, your vision is what I would lean towards. I'd have the mutants expand further out and terraform other empty planets, befriending other galactic civilizations, etc. I'd also have them explore Otherworld - in Excalibur we learned of an alternate reality England which was "the safest home mutants have ever known" and they were continuing to grow their alliances. There actually was a Krakoa in that reality too!

Not to say the mutants would never come back to Earth-616, but I think it'd be interesting to look at a world without the X-Men and what would unfold from that.

[Grunty]

Haven't thought of full blown teams, just a general idea for the setting.

What ever ended the Krakoa status quo caused a timeline reset back to somewhere before Morrison's run. However many of the heros still retained enough faint memories of the past 5 in universe years (the 20+ publishing years in reality) that they would subconsciously alter the timeline for mutants.
So the worst of Morrison's, Joe Q's and Perlmutter's damage to the X-men franchise is reversed, the X-men were never stuck being teachers and painting massive bullseye on the Xavier School's students, mutants are more intigrated and involved in the world's daily life and overall the world is a bit less bleak than it was the last 20 years of publishing.

From there the timeline jumps 5 years ahead to present day, where the new stories starts and the altered or untold stories from the timeline alterations can be told in mini series or one-shots.

[Jackraow21]

I've never read much of Cable interacting with the wider Marvel Universe. I'd especially like to see a team-up with Black Panther. Has this happened before?

Yes. It was during the Casey/Ladronn run on the book back in the 90s, which was awesome. Ladronn’s art is very stylized and Jack Kirby-esque, so not everyone’s cup of tea. But this was truly an epic run that really evolved Cable as a character. It was during this run that he got his psimitar, for example.

And is the old Cable/Deadpool book worth reading?

Absolutely. Highly recommended. Another character defining run, for both Cable and Deadpool honestly. It created and defined their friendship.

[crimsontt]

I can't see Jean and Betsy agreeing to such psychic manipulation though. I'd like to think Xavier wouldn't but it depends on who's writing him.

I’ve thought of it when I wrote this pitch months ago:
As Jean and psylocke leave cerebro, jean asks betsy how does it feel to cross all possible ethical boundaries to safeguard mutants. Betsy says that she have seen many horrible things done to the mutant kind and always thought it was due to the clash of homo sapiens and homo sapiens superior living on the same lands. But after krakoa, mutants were living in full separation and even though they were ultimately persecuted and decimated by humans. She thinks xavier has finally ran out of alternatives and if they want mutants to survive on earth, that could possibly be their only option. Jean says betsy has always been the more pragmatic telepath, but to her, this is the opposite of what she has been taught by xavier since she was a teenager. Betsy says that they have been trough different and more turbulent times and asks if it’s really that hard deal with it. Jean says this precisely her issue: she is accepting and cooperating, what leaves her wondering if she herself could also be having her mind nudged by the world most powerful telepath?

Here are the 6 fictional issues synopsis. I wrote them before Reign of X, so there are many inconsistencies with the current continuity

https://justpaste.it/7i5hu
https://justpaste.it/7i2xq

https://justpaste.it/8cd3d

https://justpaste.it/4gm7q

https://justpaste.it/707br


https://justpaste.it/85o7c

[Mungho]

I thought about including Beast because I'd love to see him get a full redemption arc, but personally, I think the character needs a bit of a rest (or a reset of some kind) before that can happen.

Yeah, something like that. I'm sure people on this forum are tired of me complaining of his depiction, it's just that him and Hulk are my favorite Marvel characters and I hate to see him like this.

But the point of this thread is about Krakoa. I'd actually like it to stay around, with some changes. First, the resurrection protocols(RP). Some things I'm not sure I understand. Are mutants not allowed to die at all? I've been trying to binge-read as much as I can, so this may have been answered. But a Catholic(other religions too) mutant would have severe misgivings about not being allowed to pass into the afterlife. I can understand child-mutants though since they haven't really begun to live. If they made it elective or something that would be good. That's one of the things I would change, the other being an actual elected council(Scott actually discusses this with Jean in one book).